When you accept that whatever is defined in the Qur’an as Haraam should be legally prohibited, even where no prescribed punishment exists; you are essentially adding to the Law what the Law does not contain. And once you start down this road, you can extend your logic to begin including punishments for failures to do what the Qur’an stipulates as mandatory; again, although no prescribed punishment for such failures exist. For example, there is no Hadd for not wearing hijab, for men and women socializing, for not lowering your gaze, etc; but we often see these actions penalized by self-proclaimed Islamic states. Most Islamists and their supporters approve of these kinds of amendments to the Shari’ah, but that is what they are; amendments; and it is worth pondering whether or not this is even legitimate.
Following this line of reasoning, you can imagine the state auditing your expenditures to see whether or not you have made sufficient efforts to save enough money to perform Hajj; “We do not deem it necessary for you to spend on Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, or any other travel expenses; none of these are obligatory and you should rather allot your money to make Hajj”. It is not inconceivable.
This is the great deception of the Islamists, in my opinion. The fact is that for a government to be defined legally as Islamic, very little is required; far less than they imply.
They confuse the issue of whether a government is Islamic in character with whether or not it is Islamic by legal definition. This allows them to dismiss any government as un-Islamic if it is imperfect, or if any injustice or corruption exists. But there is no reason why a government cannot be both Islamic AND bad at the same time, if we are using legal definitions. Indeed, this is almost all we have ever had. What they want is the power to amend the Shari’ah, to add laws and regulations that seem congruent with Islamic values, but which are not stipulated in the Qur’an and Sunnah, except as forms of Guidance to help individuals avoid potential punishment in the Hereafter.
But this overlooks the inherent Mercy of these matters being left unlegislated by the Creator; the Mercy of leaving these matters up to the individual’s conscience. It also, of course, perpetuates the wrong assumption that taqwa can be enforced. But most importantly, in my view, it confuses the whole issue of what Islamic government is and isn’t; and this is what enables the Islamists to survive as political players even while they are almost entirely bankrupt of political understanding or ideas. In the absence of any substantive policies that could actually bring about a prosperous society, they prefer to concern themselves with legislating what Islam does not legislate.